Under the terms of the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974, the National Archives and Records Administration is required
"to provide the public with the full truth, at the earliest reasonable date, of the abuses of governmental powers popularly identified under the generic term "Watergate".

In an effort to comply with this mandate, the then-Nixon Presidential Materials Staff released the
Abuse of Governmental Power (AOGP) tapes in October 1996.